How To Change A Die

Hello and welcome to the LFA tutorial on how to change a TDP Die. Today, I'm going to be working on a TDP 5 but the principles for changing a die on any of the TDP Range are exactly the same.

Remove the ejection tray

The first thing that you're going to need to do is to remove the tablet chute (ejection tray) from the front of the machine. This is done very simply by removing the two Phillips-head screws from either side.

Remove the current die

The next thing that you're going to need to do is take the old die out of the machine. The old die is a three-part set which consists of a top pin, a center ring, and a lower pin which is inside the machine at the moment. They're held in place using this nut, this nut, and this bolt here. The first thing that you want to do is loosen off and remove all three of these. Once you have removed all three of these items, you'll find the next step a lot easier if you remove the boot from the right-hand side of the machine. This is done using an allen key set.

Remove the locking nuts

The first thing that you have to remove is the locking nut from this section here. You can then release the boot from the machine by turning this˙ nut on the right to the left. If you're having problems removing this bolt here, a simple pair of claws will help you remove it a lot more easily. I find it helpful, when removing the boot and funnel from the machine that's being used, to have a small pot ready to collect the excess powder.

Remove the upper and lower die

The next thing that you have to do is remove the upper pin. After this, you need to remove the center ring so you can gain access to the lower pin. I've found that the best way to do this is to increase the ejection height to the point where it is pushing out the center ring. Remove the bar from the right-hand side that holds the two nuts in place then over-extend the ejection height. This, as you can see, will force the center ring up inside the hole. Using the same pair of claws that you used to remove the boot, just grab hold and give it a little tug. This will quite often pull the lower pin with it. This gives you your complete set of an upper pin, a center ring, and a lower pin.

The upper pin and the lower pin can be differentiated in two ways. The upper pin has a much shorter neck. The lower pin has a longer neck and it also has a small V-groove cut out on the front so that it can be held in with the nut.

Install the new die

The next thing that we need to do is start by inserting our new die. So that you can see the difference between the two tablets, I'm going for a 20 millimeter die. This is one of the largest that the TDP5 can handle. This is the bottom die for the TDP 5, as I have said before, it has the longer neck and the V-groove cut out. This is the first item that I must insert. If I insert this, forward-facing, with the V toward the bottom, it is good practice to then immediately put in the lower securing nut.

One of biggest problems that I find people get with their TDPs is that they've not gone round and properly secured all the nuts and bolts before operation. One of the biggest causes of damage to TDPs is not having all of the bolts securely fastened before operation. The next item to put back in is the TDP Center Ring. This is simply inserted over the top of the die and into the plate so that it is flush and level, like so. It is then secured using its own nut.

The last piece to go back into the machine is the upper die. On a smaller die, such as an eight millimeter one shown here, the locking nut can be slipped over the top so that it's not important as to which order they go on. However, as I'm inserting a much larger die, this could also be shaped like an oval, or triangular, it is important to make sure that the locking nut goes on with the upper die so that there's not a problem later on when trying to attach it.

Once the die is secured in place, you can now go on to reattach the boot. Move the machine round to a point in the cycle, like so, where the boot can be reinserted underneath the die. The boot is then re-secured using the locking nut and the screw. The next step is to tune up the die. You can look at this at the LFA video on how to tune up a die.

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